Foley Moley

For Mark Foley, it's somehow gotten worse. This guy is on one bad roll. Now, after leaving Congress amidst a scandal that's going to land him in the history books as one of America's most infamous and hypocritical perverts, his father has died and, on the day before the visitation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has said it is starting a criminal investigation into his contact with Congressional pages (most of it via e-mails and IMs, apparently).

Channel 5 in WPB got the first images of Foley, which were taken outside the home of longtime partner Layne Nisenbaum, since the scandal broke. Today there will be a visitation and tomorrow the funeral will be held at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church (with such an emphasis on the false ideal of immaculate conception, which implies there is something wrong with actual conception, it's really no wonder there's so much gay perv shit going on in the Catholic hierarchy).

Foley's attorney, of course, is asking for privacy for the family. So here's a question: How does the media handle the funeral? Do reporters go and question people -- including Foley if they get a chance -- outside the church? Do they just stake it out and get images? Or do they leave it alone altogether?

My bet is that the vast majority of the media will be respectful. Why? Because they know the former congressman himself isn't going to talk and they recognize that the funeral itself is barely news. They'll set up across the street from the church. If the family is smart, it will send the lawyer or a spokesman over to answer questions. When it's over, the media hordes will play it by ear. Ideally they'll already have sources who they can ask about the service well after it's over. If they don't and need quotes, well, that's when every bit of tact and common sense they have needs to come into play.

This is a weird brew. We'll see what happens.

After the jump: A Dirty Therapist and A Dirty Public Defender

Rabone

-- Looks like Todd Rabone was a busy boy. The licensed therapist stands accused of exposing himself and groping five patients during court-ordered sessions in a two-day period, Stephanie Slater tells us today in the Palm Beach Post. Police say he convinced the women -- who were ordered to counseling for substance abuse in lieu of jail time -- that if they told on him, he could have them thrown in slammer. To seal the arrest, police also claim to have found a paper towel with Rabone's semen on it in the Drug Abuse Foundation of Palm Beach County treatment center. How in the hell does scum like this guy get across the transom?

-- This story is just insane: An assistant Broward County Public Defender, described as an "ascending star" in the office, cracked another P.D. over the ear with a beer bottle in a fight over a woman. It happened at Tarpon Bend in the Himarshee district on November 9. Twenty-eight-year-old Eddie Lopez, the accused assailant, has been fired and the victim, Faisal Afzal, has filed a police complaint, albeit a week after the fact (looks like they wanted to keep it hush-hush at first). Tonya Alanez writes in the Sun-Sentinel that Afzal received 10 to 15 stitches and is having further tests done to determine if there was any unseen damage. Lopez, whom P.D. Howard Finkelstein recently promoted, apparently won't have to rely on the P.D.'s office to defend him: He's hired well-known attorney Fred Haddad to stand in his corner.